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AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



LITERARY SOCIETIES 



Kfiptt* W0lle0* 




DANIEL DOUGHERTY, Esq., 

II 
OF PHILADELPHIA, 

July 26, 1859. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

BINGWALT & CO., BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS, 
No. 34 South Third Street. 

' -^ 1859. 



'il 



COKRESPONDENCE. 



WASiiiKGroN Hall, Lafayette College, > 
September 14, 1859. j 
Mr. Dougherty: 

Dear Sir — In behalf of the Washington Literary Society, we present you 
our grateful thanks for your able, interesting, and eloquent address before the 
Societies of Lafayette at the last Commencement, and request a copy of the same 
for publication, so that it may go forth more widely with its noble thoughts, true 
eloquence, and practical efficiency, instructing the youth, by precept and example, 
to think deeply, speak fearlessly, and act nobly, while at the same time awaken- 
ing them to the true reality of their Republic's condition. 

Most respectfully, yours, 

S. P. GALT, 



S. G. BLYTHE, y CommiUee. 
JACOB TITMAN. 



Daniel Dougheety, Esq., Philadelphia. 



.} 



Philadelphia, September 16, 1859. 

South-east corner Eighth and Locust streets. 
Gentlemen: 

In compliance with the request, so flatteringly conveyed in your note of 
the ]4th instant, I have the honor to submit to you, for publication, my address. 
With grateful recollections of kindnesses received during my visit to Easton, 
I remain. 

With the highest regard. 

Your friend, 

DAN. DOUGHERTY. 

Messrs. S. P. Galt, S. G. Blythe, Jacob Titman, Committee of Washington 
Literary Society, Lafayette College. 



ADDRESS. 



Permit me to begin by presenting to the members of the 
Washington Literary Society of Lafayette College my grateful 
acknowledgments for the unmerited honor they have conferred in 
inviting me to this presence and this place. 

The orator of an occasion like this is generally selected from 
among the distinguished graduates of the College. He returns once 
more, like a wanderer to his early home, to tread the old familiar 
halls, to look around on scenes sanctified by departed joys, to feel 
the welcome grasp of long separated but ever faithful friends, to 
bask again in the smiles of those who perhaps first taught him to 
aspire, and to receive the thrilling congratulations of the venerated 
men who sent him forth into the world crowned with their bless- 
ings. 

I appear here under no such auspices. I entered your College 
walls for the first time to-day. No old comrades are here to wel- 
come me. A stranger to you all, I am sustained solely by the 
disinterested kindness which prompted the invitation, and I am 
sure the ladies and gentlemen present will lend an indulgent ear 
while I proceed feebly to discharge the duty assigned me. 

The age in which we live, and the country we call our own, are 
the most marvellous that have existed since fallen Adam looked 
his last on Paradise. The boldest flights of the romancer, the 
wildest dreams of the poet, cannot parallel the rise and progress 
of this nation. 

There are Peers in the British Parliament who are older than 
this Republic. When Henry Brougham was born the American 
continent was an almost unbroken wilderness. European kings 
claimed it as an appendage to their crowns. Here and there 
might be seen a cultivated spot, the plain yet pleasant home of a 
thrifty farmer. Occasionally the eye would light on a spacious 
mansion, where some wealthy gentleman lived in baronial ease. 



Lazily sailing up the Hudson or the Delaware, once in a while 
would come some ship from the Old World, Population was 
almost exclusively confined to the eastei-n slopes of the Alleghe- 
nies. The missionary, the hunter, and the soldier only had ad- 
vanced into the valley of the Mississippi ; beyond, the land lay in 
the solemn stillness of primeval nature. Mighty lakes and rivers, 
on whose bosoms the combined navies of the nations might ride, 
had never been ruffled but by the storm, nor borne a mortal over 
their surface save when the canoe of the Indian . bounded and 
bended on their billows. Millions and millions of miles of land, 
the products of which might feed the inhabitants of the earth, had 
never been tilled or touched by man. 

Eighty years have sped, and America, touched by the talisman 
of freedom, has sprung from the downcast mien of neglected pro- 
vinces into the towering altitude of a colossal empire, whose might 
the world has never matched, and of which it now doth stand in 
awe. 

The solitude has been broken by the ceaseless din of thirty mil- 
lions of people, battling for wealth and prosperity, in all the pur- 
suits of enlightened life. Cities founded but yesterday rival in 
splendor European capitals that for centuries have been the abode 
of royalty. Our rivers are ever white with the canvas of thou- 
sands of ships as they sail and steam to and from the seaports of 
the world. 

The valley of the Mississippi is carved into numerous Common- 
wealths. The Rocky Mountains impede not our progress, for 
California and Oregon are already prominent States, and the 
Pacific Ocean alone bounds the western limits of the Republic. 
Throughout this vast domain peace reigns supreme, and liberty 
hath made each man a kins;. 

Science has here achieved grander victories than all the arma- 
das and armies that ever swept the sea or shook the earth — vic- 
tories, the fruits of which we pray may never perish, but survive 
to bless all posterity. 

Science has scattered her trophies" among all degrees of men ; 
every home, every profession, pursuit, and trade, have been par- 
takers of her triumphs. The ocean and its depths, the mountains 
and their peaks, are made tributary to her power. 



Slie lias dauntlessly carried her standard amid the Polar seas 
and over barriers of eternal ice, and sought for conquests there. 
She has annihilated time and space, and, with the power of the 
fabled Prospero, made the very elements obey; the lightning 
leaps to do her bidding and bear her missives around the world. 
With her all-searching glance she has penetrated into the deepest 
caverns of the earth, and explained to mortals the mysteries of 
nature. 

She pierces the darkness of midnight, reads the stars, and tells 
how, in the wide ethereal concave, worlds roll on worlds, where eye 
hath never seen and foot hath never trod. Science here can do 
everything, save change thy unalterable decree, 0, God ! that all 
who live must die. 

Such is our country, and such are her achievements. 

The solemn question now presents itself and demands an answer 
from this generation : Is this nation to prosper in the long future 
as she has in the brief past ? Will she stand the test of time, and 
make her name resound through a thousand years, or has she 
already reached her prime ? Are her glories to depart like a 
dream ? Is she henceforth to droop, to decay, until she dies ? 
Shall she have written on her tomb, amid the shouts of despots 
and the gibes of slaves, " This was the last of the Republics ?" 

This is a subject fraught with weal or woe to all posterity. It 
appeals to us as Christians, as patriots, as lovers of our race, as 
the inheritors of a glorious past, and custodians of a peerless 

future. 

To insure the stability of our Republican Institutions, and 
to grasp the rich prizes Avhich hang all along our future, it is 
not enough that our territory extend from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific ; that population increase ; that commerce, manufactures, 
and agriculture thrive ; that arts and education flourish ; that 
science is all powerful. It is essential that the people shall never 
neglect their political duties, nor be indifferent to the require- 
ments of public virtue, and that they preserve, in all its purity, 
their system of government — guarding it as Roman virgins did 
the vestal fire, to extinguish Avhich betokened the destruction of 
the State. 

He deserves not freedom who is unmindful of its cares. The 
priceless blessings we enjoy cannot be preserved but by the 



8 

ceaseless vigilance of the citizens. All experience teaches us that 
neglect is the forerunner of destruction. The affairs of an humble 
household, if neglected by its head, ■will soon become confused, 
and create disorder among the inmates. 

If your honored Professors were indifferent to their grave du- 
ties, the College would be deserted. If the nobility and the 
gentry of England forgot for a time that the permanency of their 
vast possessions depended on their watching the wheels of govern- 
ment, and directing their every motion, quickly would tumults 
shake the land, if not subvert the throne itself. - 

If the Czar, or the Emperor of the French, gave themselves 
over to luxurious delights, scorning the details of State, soon, 
like Sardanapalus, they would find that the foe had passed the 
portals of their palaces, and they and their wide Empires fill a 
common grave. 

A Republic, rightfully administered, disdains the pomp and 
parade of royalty ; looks with equal love on the poor man and 
on the prince ; she devotes her every energy to the advancement 
of the people ; she gives the guidance of the Government to the 
majority, but guards with solemnity the rights of the minority ; 
she protects the citizens from Avrong without, and injustice within. 

In return for all these blessings, she implores, as vital to her 
existence, that patriotism may be a living, practical sentiment — 
that wisdom, truth, and justice may shine in her councils, and 
that every citizen she calls her own will lend his aid and give 
his voice to keep her in the right. 

Yet, in utter disregard of her supplications — in violation 
of plighted faith — in despite of our intellectual advancement 
and renown as a nation, the multitude give no proper atten- 
tion to their political duties. Too often the industrial, com- 
mercial, and Avealthy classes — those who have most at stake — 
seem least to care. If they vote on an election day, their 
consciences are easy for a twelvemonth. Intent on their indi- 
vidual pursuits, they give no heed to the common weal. The 
farmer, independent of the world, feeds his flocks, tills his fields, 
gathers in the golden grain, and sings the glad song of content. 
The mechanic, happy in his toil, devotes his days to his trade, 
his evenings to fire-side enjoyments, seemingly conscious that 



9 

while all goes well at home, no harm can come. The merchant, 
proud of his possessions, fancies himself secure, at least, from 
temporal ills. The professional man, the scholar and the savant, 
each confines himself to his respective pursuit. 

While all these, in every probability, are members of some so- 
ciety, lodge, order, or company, either beneficial, charitable, social, 
or remunerative, and devote days and nights to its concerns, look 
to the selection of its officers, guard its treasury, see that its 
fundamental law is never departed from, yet, ask these gentlemen 
to give their attention to the selection of .suitable men for respon- 
sible public positions — to Avatch that their sworn agents violate not 
their trusts — to see that no law is adopted which has not for its 
aim the general welfare — and they will tell 3"0u, with the air of 
offended virtue, they scorn to mix in politics, their time can be 
better employed — the country can take care of itself I 

Thus the vast machinery of this huge Republic, in all its de- 
partments, divisions, and sub-divisions — national, state, county, 
and municipal — is, for the most part, left to the control of bands 
of men who make politics a trade — men who laugh at integrity — 
are insensible to patriotism — are regardless of intellect — who 
hate the man who tells the truth and will not cringe to them, 
and love the one who lowest bends, yet cheats them in the end. 
Who 

" Are no surer, no — 
Than is the coal of fire upon the ice, 
Or hailstone in the sun ; 
Who deserves greatness, 
Deserves tlieir liate. 

"With every minute they do change a mind, 
And call him noble that was now tlieir hate, 
Him vile that was their garland." 

Thus, too, incompetency swaggers in prominent positions, bold- 
faced mediocrity drives superior attainments into private life, 
and, with audacious presumption, aspires even to the Presidency ! 
Fraud and corruption hold their revels in high phices. Legis- 
lation, at least in some States, has become a burning reproach. 
Discord rears her horrid front, and a division of the Union is 
gloried in by those who have sworn to defend the Constitution. 

Let us particularize. 

Many of our municipalities are crowded with public plunderers. 
Look, for instance, at our chief cities — in population, wealth, and 



10 

political importance, superior to many States. Yet, the great 
body of the citizens have no more to do with the naming of the 
candidates for public offices than they have with the election of 
a Commoner of England, or a Deputy of France. Irresponsible 
conventions, in which they seek no voice, and over which they 
exercise no influence, give them the candidates, and they " register 
the decrees." Places without salaries, a conscientious performance 
of the duties of which involves a consumption of considerable 
time, are with avidity sought after by men who, at least to the 
general eye, can ill afford the sacrifice. The secret is subse- 
quently explained when they are detected in some nefarious act, 
by which the treasury is rifled of money collected from honest 
industry, or honorably-acquired wealth. 

The public offices are canvassed for in all the haunts of vice. 
Candidates borrow money, if they have it not — hire horses and 
carriages by the week, drive to one locality to-day, to another 
to-morrow, buying the favor of the bully and the influence of the 
blackleg — staking their all on the hazard of a nomination. 
Some of the unsuccessful thus contract habits of idleness and 
intemperance, and end their days in drunkenness and despair. 
The nomination of the successful one is ratified by the good, 
easy electors, who think, in going to the polls, they have deserved 
well of their country, and the incumbent makes up for his ex- 
penditures, not unfrequently, by extortion, and every cunning 
trick that knavery can devise. 

Not a few of the magistrates thus nominated and thus elected 
are Avorse than the culprits who come before them. In their civil 
jurisdiction suits are brought without the least semblance of 
truth or justice. The defendant, relying on the integrity of the 
"Justice," places the facts before him, sure of a successful result. 
Judgment is, nevertheless, rendered against him, and he is con- 
soled by being told he can appeal to court, where the cost of 
counsel, loss of time, obligations to witnesses, and anxiety of 
mind, involve an expense in gaining the case greater than if he 
had submitted to the original wrong. 

These are facts familiar to any ordinary observer. 

The manifold abuses which result from the strange, nay, the 
criminal neglect of the masses of a city, can only be estimated by 



11 

tliose "who have given the subject their attention, anil watched the 
progress of the evil. 

It has taught the worst influences the power of combinations; 
it has increased, in fifty ways, the taxes ; it has corrupted the 
ballot-box ; it has rendered impotent the law ; it has made cities 
the scenes of dreadful conflicts — sometimes with the authorities, 
and sometimes between rival ffangs — while the authorities stood 
by powerless to quell ; it has given bad men influence in high 
places to retard the due administration of justice, and when the 
courts stand firm it has induced those who knew better, to petition 
and persuade the Executive of the State to violate his sworn duty, 
and to turn out upon the people the worst of criminals, while 
bands of rufiians meet them at the prison walls to bear them, like 
heroes, to their homes. 

On the other hand, the great interests of the community are 
uncared for. Vast sums of money are applied to matters at best 
but of doubtful utility, while a parsimonious spirit is manifested in 
regard to others of the highest public importance. Few efforts 
are made to preserve the general health and comfort. No steps 
are taken to provide pleasures for the people, nor to anticipate 
the wants of coming generations. 

Already has the startling doubt been broached, " Is self-govern- 
ment a failure in large cities?" and the statute-book of our own 
State reveals the humiliating fact that the election of certain offi- 
cers in our metropolis has recently been taken from the peo- 
ple, and their appointment thrust on the Judiciary as the only 
department of the public service to Avhieli the delicate duty could 
be confided ! 

These are terrible truths ! 

" Can such things be, 

And overcome us like a summer's cloud, 
Without our special wonder?" 

But, if these evils grow apace, how long will even the Judiciary 
be pure ? The upright judge will be thrown aside for the pliant 
demagogue ; and at length, our cities, instead of being so many 
buhvarks of the Republic, will become the points where insidious 
attacks will be soonest made and the surest to be successful. 

But let us look beyond the confines of cities, and our observa- 
tions take a wider range. 



12 

Surelj it is of vital importance to the well-being of a State that 
its Legislature reflect the wishes of the people. 

It is the right of representation that monarchs will not yield,' 
and which was only won for us by the blood of the Revolution. 
The duties of legislators are the highest with which men can be 
entrusted. 

" They are the guardians of the Constitution ; the makers, re- 
pealers, and interpreters of the law ; delegated to watch, to check, 
to avert every dangerous innovation ; to propose, to adopt, and to 
cherish every solid and well-weighed improvement ; bound by 
every tie of honor, nature, and religion, to transmit that Consti- 
tution and those laws to posterity, amended, if possible, at least 
without any derogation." 

Such is the language of Sir William Blackstone, used to express 
the duties of British legislators. Can they be regarded of less 
importance here ? To legislate for a free people requires the ad- 
vantages of education, the possession of the loftiest integrity, and 
the warmest sympathy with all the solid interests of the State. 
Yet there are those who legislate for the different States of the 
American Confederacy who are unable to read, much less to frame 
a statute ! who know nothing of our past history, present wants, 
or future prospects ; who are ignorant of the Constitution, and 
would not dare to fill the humblest of clerkships, yet occupy seats 
in legislative halls ! 

But their ignorance is their least fault. Corruption swarms 
around each capitol, daring the gaze and defying the power of out- 
raged constituencies. Legislation is bought and sold. Within a 
year it has come to light that, in one of the vigorous States of the 
West, the majority of the Legislature, Avitli many of the State 
ofiicers, in violation of their oaths, and of honor, were purchased 
each for a given price. 

How has our beloved Pennsylvania suflercd, and how does she 
Sufi"er now? The cost to the Commonwealth for each session of 
the Legislature reaches nearly one hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars, or aggregating a million every six or seven ^^ears. Each 
session occupies about four months. Is that time taken up in the 
consideration and passage of salutary laws, to bind the States in 
still closer ties, to benefit the people, to aid the industrial classes, 



13 

to foster commerce ? Ah, no ! such themes are sehlom thought of. 
Public laws are scarcely ever passed, and then only after the dire 
persuasion of suffering citizens. The whole period, with rare in- 
tervals, is occupied in passing acts that are sapping the founda- 
tions of individual enterprise, that are debasing the workingman, 
and will soon place him and his family at the mercy of the heart- 
less speculator, that are rendering precarious the possessions of 
the Avealthy, that are breaking down all the barriers of civil 
society ; acts that are enacted at the beck and nod of villains who 
each winter congregate at the capitol, and sell the sovereignty of 
the State to all who will pay the price that they may name. 

Gangs of sharpers, sometimes from distant States, despising 
the slow gains which wait on patient toil, concoct their plans, col- 
lect funds, crave special privileges, and carry, through the forms 
of legislation, schemes to entrap the unwary, to tempt the toiler 
to deposit his earnings, the frugal to invest his savings, the pros- 
perous to insure his property. In a few years the bubble bursts, 
the credulous are reduced to want, while the wrong-doers roll by 
them in their cushioned carriages, and laugh at the ruin they have 
spread where once were happy homes. 

At the recent session of our Legislature, there were about fifteen 
hundred bills proposed in the House, and about eleven hundred in 
the Senate. Seven hundred and thirty acts were passed, of which 
some six or seven were of general public importance, and the 
greater number of the rest were acts creating private corporations, 
or conferring additional privileges on those already created. 

Against the enactment of such laws, in vain the honest members 
strive ; in vain they declare that, if private corporations are char- 
tered in the same ratio for the next twenty years, as they have 
for the last ten years, here will exist an aristocracy more powerful 
than that of England — an aristocracy of grasping corporators, who 
will grow stronger and stronger until every department of trade, 
agriculture, commerce, and manufactures shall be helplessly within 
their power. In vain they point to the fact that thousands and 
tens of thousands of men who should belong to the producing 
classes, and be training their children to habits of industry, are 
the hangers-on and retainers of corporations, acquiring expensive 
habits, living in comparative idleness themselves, and by their ex- 



14 

ample teaching their offspring to follow in their wake. In vain 
they may tell that ancient Rome looked with jealous eyes on all 
such combinations, and the greatest of modern political economists 
regarded them as generally injurious to the freedom of trade and 
progress of improvements. 

Either at chance hours, when opponents are absent, these bills 
are hurried through — perhaps coiled up under the title of some 
proper measure they never arrest attention — or else they are 
boldly advocated by legislators openly bribed or secretly seduced 
to their support. The very rules of the House of Representatives 
are framed to assist this species of legislation. 

Oh! it makes my bosom swell with indignation when I think 
that our grand old State, so fertile and so free — with a domain 
matchless in beauty and boundless in wealth — with a history 
crowded with high resolves and noble deeds — with a population 
virtuous, intelligent, and brave — with colleges, seminaries, and 
schools, flashing their intellectual fires from every hill-top — with 
institutions of charity and beneficence dotting every plain — with 
revealed religion shedding its serene influence over all — that she 
still tamely submits to these despoilers of her charms, and her 
people rise not in their wrath and drive them forth forever from 
the temple of our political liberties. 

Better for us and for our posterity — better for our peace at home, 
our character abroad — that the Legislature of Pennsylvania should 
meet but once in ten years, than that the State should be disgraced 
by such representatives, and dishonored by such laws. 

If it be wrong to be unmindful of our political duty to the mu- 
nicipality and the State, it magnifies into a crime when we are 
careless of the concerns of our common country. 

It cannot he questioned that the people, at least in relation to 
the high ofiices of the nation, should, of their free choice, select 
those most competent to discharge exalted functions ; that capacity, 
integrity, and political belief should alone actuate the preference ; 
that candidates, from motives of delicacy, should refuse 

'* To put on the gown, stand naked, and entreat them, 
For my wounds' sake, to give their suffrages." 

But such thoughts are regarded as Utopian, unfit for this practi- 
cal age ! Talent, integrity, and political belief have nothing to 



15 

do with the selection, and sometimes are positive disadvantages. 
Representatives and Senators blush not to buy their scats, then 
flaunt in the sunshine, fancying themselves great -when they are 
nought but degenerate sons, unworthy of the land they live in, 
and meriting the withering scorn of every upright man. 

Come with me, in imagination, into the first of deliberative assem- 
blies — even into the Senate of the United States — not, indeed, into 
the old chamber which so often rang with the eloquence, and heard 
the sage counsel of our brightest and our best, and which should, 
in far-hereafter, like the great hall of William Rufus, be linked 
with the memories of centuries, but which, by the vile spirit of 
innovation, in less than sixty years from its first service, is de- 
serted by its members, stripped of its decorations and its hangings, 
uncared for by the thousands who each hour pass its outer doors, 
and only visited by the thoughtful few Avho love to break in upon 
its solitude, linger around its pillars, and dwell with rapture in 
thoughts of the mighty spirits who once trod its floor, and there 
contended for their country in high and matchless debate, — 
let us join the thoughtless throng, pass down the marble corridor, 
mount the magnificent staircase, and enter where much money and 
little taste have combined to make the new Senate Plouse. 

Those we look on should be the picked men of the Republic, — 
men raised to that proud eminence by the unsolicited choice of 
free Commonwealths — men gifted with wisdom and genius improved 
and cultivated by education and experience, whose past careers 
have been rendered brilliant by the faithful discharge of public 
trusts, and beautiful by exercise of personal integrity, to whom 
we could all, with proudly-beating breasts, point as Statesmen, to 
whose guidance the nation could be confided, even in times of ex- 
tremest peril. Yet, is this so ? Alas, no ! 

A few there are, ripe in wisdom, ready in debate, patriotic in 
their purposes, alive to the true dignity of their exalted stations ; 
but the majority are mere politicians, clever only in trickery, 
whose aim is not the happiness, the honor, and the glory of their 
country, but the success of a political organization, the procure- 
ment of a re-election, an appointment from the Executive, the 
possession of patronage, or some rich job by which they may re- 
tii'c to live in sloth, and give place to others no better than themselves. 



16 

The moral tone of the Senate is departing. It is no longer 
clothed with awe. Even its appearance is unprepossessing. The 
members are seen lolling on sofas, walking to and fro, seemingly 
anxious to attract the gaze of the galleries, and with hat in hand, 
hurrying in and out, while some "grave" Senator is speaking, by 
the day, without a listener, save the phonographer. 

Speeches are never made to influence legislation. It is seldom 
they are delivered to a full and listening Senate. Sometimes they 
are never delivered, but are published and circulated as electioneer- 
ing pamphlets. 

It is noised abroad that there are " honorable" Senators who 
use their places to make money, and that bills have been pressed, 
and passed, in which they deigned to feel a personal interest. On 
questions of disputed seats. Senators vote not as if the will of a 
sovereign State was to be obeyed, but according to the political 
proclivities of the respective contestants. 

Months and months are occupied in fruitless debate, while but 
little care is given even to the national defences, and it is to be 
feared that all the great cities of the Atlantic seaboard could be 
destroyed by the maritime powers of Europe within a month from 
the declaration of war. 

The high-bred courtesies of gentlemen have, before now, given 
place to scurrility and personal abuse. Weapons have been bran- 
dished, blows inflicted, and Senators felled to the floor. The Ex- 
ecutive has been denounced for enforcing the law of nations, and 
the acts of armed marauders who sought to colonize or conquer 
neighboring States, have been justified on the ground that they 
were weak and we were strong. 

No sane man, with a sound heart, can doubt that the first duty 
of every American Statesman is to preserve, in all its purity, the 
union of these States, by a generous and rigid obedience to the 
plain precepts of the Constitution. As long as fraternal love 
binds together all our people, the Union will ride in safety over 
every billow, and defy the dangers of every storm. 

Yet many of our modern Solons are striving to accomplish that 
which the combined powers of Europe, in arms, could never do. 
Undeserving of notice, they seek to attract the public eye, and 
agitate the public mind, by the utterance of the wildest doctrines 
and the most disloyal sentiments. The Revolution, its trials and 



17 

its triumphs, are forgotten. The Constitution, framed by the 
fathers, is pronounced a faihire. The Union, freighted with the 
blessings of millions yet unborn, is declared by them to have out- 
lived its purposes. They are bent on creating jealousies among 
tlie people, engendering sectional hate, and enkindling the fires of 
fierce civil war. 

If the evils flowing from these sources could be restrained within 
the walls of our national capitol, we might possibly still be content 
to regard them with indifference, but they have long since broken 
down all barriers and now deluge the land. 

If the moral and intellectual standard of our Senators and Re- 
presentatives continues to fall, while the power of the President 
rises by his increasing patronage consequent on the growth and 
expansion of the republic, there will be much reason to revive the 
fears of Patrick Henry. 

Our character as a people is suffering, for it is judged by foreign 
nations, not by the virtues which shine resplendently in private 
life, but by the bearing of those entrusted with the high offices of State. 

Already are brother Americans looking sullenly on each other; 
boasting of their respective sections, and ignoring the rest of their 
country ; exacting compliance with claims of doubtful legality, yet 
denying to each other the exercise of unquestioned rights. The 
citizen of the North, who, clothed with the proper commission, 
attempts to arrest the criminal Avho has fled to a Southern State, 
is hooted from town to town, and driven back like a foe beyond 
its borders. The citizen of the South, coming North under the 
express sanction of the Constitution, to secure his property, has it 
rescued from him by an armed mob, who seek the " penalties with 
exultation and defiance." 

In the North, conventions composed of delegates representing 
distant constituencies, outrage all propriety by the violence of 
their fanatical appeals, and devise means to oppose the execution 
of national laws. 

In the South, conventions of able men advocate the opening of 
the slave trade, and in open day, :uid with defiant tone, proclaim 
treason to the Republic. 

Unchecked, where will all this end 'i In bloody and extermina- 
ting civil war — in the separation of the South from the North — in 
the downfall of the Republic — in the destruction of liberty — and 



18 

in consigning the world into the iron gripe of those who will rule it if 
the people will not. If we are true to ourselves, and faithful to 
our political responsibilities, this nation will survive all the king- 
doms of the earth, and make the world republican. 

But if Ave be unfit to carry out the theory of our government — 
if we be indifferent to the troubles which are gathering about us — 
if we trifle with the richest heritage ever bequeathed to a people — 
if we laugh at the labors of our sires — if we mock the counsels of 
the mighty dead — if we prove traitors to human nature, and in- 
grates to Jehovah, by whom we have been supremely blessed, and 
the Union is rent in twain, the end will draw near — love will have 
turned to hate — war bellow forth its fiery vengeance — alliances be 
formed with foreign powers — armies, led by rival despots, will cumber 
our sweet valleys, and, with the feigned battle-cries of "Justice 
to the North !" " Justice to the South !" conquer all ; liberty will 
expire, and never light the world again. 

If the American people are unable to discharge the duties of 
freemen, no other people ever can be free. Generations will be 
born, fulfil their destiny, and die — unknown nations rise, become 
powerful, then pass away — centuries roll on centuries, yet liberty 
will never revive — and the wreck of the American Republic will 
be pointed at to warn mankind against the shoals of self-government. 

I know this may be regarded as the language of despondency, 
but he is unwise who Avill not heed the teachings of experience. 

Search the great volume of the past, prophetic of the future. 
Its every page tells of the mutability of all earthly glory, and that 
even in the firmest hour there may be much to fear. The con- 
queror soon became a captive. He Avho led the legions of imperial 
Rome in triumph, over field and flood, when robed with the purple, 
surrounded by suppliants — in the capitol, even in the presence of 
the Senate — fell a murdered corpse. The master of the Avorld, 
giving himself over to bacchanalian delights, in plirensy died, 
dreading those Avho waited on his word. 

So, too, with nations. Athens was once the ({ueen of cities as 
of the sea. Her coasts were covered with colonies, and commerce 
laid its treasures at her feet. The mechanical arts Avere cultivated. 
Men Avere born to her Avhose names shall never die. Painting and 
music had their great masters. Architecture, sculpture, poetry, 
eloquence, and philosophy furnished models for all future time. 



19 

Her armies and lier navies triumphed. But when her people be- 
came dazzled with splendors, and thouf^ht themselves omnipotent — 
when they drove into exile or punished with death the great and 
good, and showered smiles and shed honors on ranting dema- 
gogues — when jealousies among the sister States of Greece broke 
into wars — then, in a brief while, her armies and her navies were 
scattered, commerce shrunk from her shores, the arts drooped, 
petty tyrants lorded it, and her people in the end were succeeded, 
on the self-same soil, by abject slaves, who wandered among the 
ruins of their ancestry, insensible to shame and proud of the smiles 
of the conquerors. 

Look at Rome, the mighty mistress of the ancient world, whose 
conquests burst the boundaries of Europe, laid Carthage waste, 
and made from Britain to Egypt tributary to her power ! Ener- 
vated by success, patriotism became but a name. Corruption 
stalked along her streets, and centered in her capitol. The Repub- 
lic withered, civil wars ensued, rival chiefs fought for sovereign 
sway, her seven centuries of glory began to wane, her power to de- 
part, and now the owl doth build her nest where once Cato counseled 
and Cicero declaimed ! Shall this be the fate of our dear country? 

When we behold, even by our side, a sister Republic torn by 
domestic dissensions and fast crumbling to ruin — when now, on the 
hlood-soaken soil of Europe, hundreds of thousands of brave men, 
to minister to the designs of rival robbers, are slaughtering each 
other, while the wail of broken hearts and crushed hopes rises 
from every home, — Oh ! let us be thankful to God for his surpassing 
goodness to us, and strive with all our might to merit his benediction. 

Let American citizens awake from this strange, this unaccounta- 
ble lethargy, and arise to a contemplation of the transcendant im- 
portance of the political responsibilities reposed in them. Let the 
inordinate passion for individual wealth be restrained within proper 
bounds. Let each citizen scrupulously fulfil his every duty to his 
country. No duty can be trifling in which she is interested. Re- 
fuse to reward political beggars. Let office seek the man, and not 
man the office. Then will the Republic continue to protect us and 
our posterity, and speed through the future, like an angel on a 
mission, lifting the lowly, shielding tlic oppressed, guarding the 
free, defending the right, and achieving her proper destiny — the 
■political )-egeneration of the human race. 



20 

Young gentlemen of the Washington and Franklin Literary 
Societies — deeply grateful for the honor tendered, as far removed 
from my expectations as deservings — I have endeavored to evince 
my appreciation of your kindness by speaking, not so much for 
your pleasure as your profit. 

My aim has been, not to give expression to sentences Avhich 
might fall like music on the ear, yet leave no impress on the mind. 
I have rather sought to give utterance to facts than phrases, pre- 
ferring fruit to foliage, and though I have but skimmed the surface 
of the subject, I have yet shown you the wrongs your country suf- 
fers from carelessness and corruption, with the hope that you, like 
Hannibal, will vow to wage perpetual war against these, her direst 
foes. I cannot claim the privilege of age, and counsel you — in- 
deed, it would be presumption in such a presence — but I am con- 
fident you will accept with pleasure a few more words from a part- 
ing friend. 

During your sojourn here, in the peaceful shades of scholarship, 
devote yourselves assiduously to your studies ; for, believe me, 
each hour now is more precious than a jewel. In a brief while 
you will bid a long farewell to your Alma Mater, and enter on the 
great battle-field of life, where each is contending with the other 
and all are struggling for the mastery. 

Strengthened by education, nerved with the courage to do right, 
armed with weapons of virtue, and relying on Him who guides and 
governs all, cheerily march into the thickest of the perils, aiming 
your blows at corruption and wrong. If you meet with reverses, 
bear bravely up against them. They will yield, and victory will 
be yours. 

Cherish a love for all your fellow-countrymen. Curb the vio- 
lence of party spirit. Whatever may be your pursuit in life, labor 
to gain an honorable position, and endeavor to win the prize of 
pre-eminence. But become not so immersed in your individual 
pursuits as to smother the ennobling sentiments of our nature. 

Let the fires of patriotism ever burn brightly in your bosoms 
and shine in all your actions. Be obedient, loving, and true to 
the Republic, whose hopeful gaze is fixed upon you. Fulfil her 
expectations, and oh, it will be "a pleasure to grow old, when the 
years that bring decay to ourselves do but ripen the prosperity of 
our country !" 




(^tiWH for the (^uhirc of the J|i'|)iiblic. 



AN ADDRESS 




DEI.IVEREn ISErOUE TIIK 



LITERARY SOCIETIES 



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J) ANIEL DO UGHEETY, Es(,) 
OF IMIILADEI.PJIIA, 
July 26, 18.59. 



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